Caledonian Crime with Tay Munroe

She was six years old. She loved writing, performing, and pasta. She wanted to be a YouTube star. She fell asleep watching Peppa Pig. Alesha MacPhail was three days into her summer holiday on the Isle of Bute when she was taken from her bed on 2 July 2018. Today's episode is not really about what happened to her. It's about who she was — and about the extraordinary family she left behind, who have...

On 30 June 2007, a burning Jeep packed with gas canisters was driven at the doors of Glasgow Airport — twenty-four hours after two car bombs were found in central London. This week, Tay unpacks the four minutes that followed: the security bollards that stopped a catastrophe, the trial that followed, and the seven ordinary Glaswegians and Paisley locals — a baggage handler, a taxi driver, a retired...

On the north-western edge of Dundee lies Templeton Woods — and within eleven months, two young women were found there, strangled, barely 150 yards apart. Carol Lannen, 18, a new mother, was found in March 1979. Elizabeth McCabe, 20, a nursery nurse, was found in February 1980, one day before her 21st birthday. This extended, victim-first episode tells their stories — who they were, and what those...

Part 2: Luke Mitchell was 14 when his girlfriend, 14-year-old Jodi Jones, was murdered near Dalkeith in June 2003. This episode covers the trial, conviction, and the fight over his freedom that’s still playing out today. Mitchell stood trial at the High Court in Edinburgh in late 2004. On 21 January 2005, aged 16, he was found guilty and sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years. The judge call...

Caledonian Crime with Tay Munroe Episode: The Murder of Jodi Jones — Part 1 Case: Jodi Jones Location: Easthouses, Midlothian, Scotland Date of crime: 30 June 2003 Episode Summary On the afternoon of 30 June 2003, 14-year-old Jodi Jones set off on her usual walk along Roan’s Dyke path to meet her boyfriend, Luke Mitchell. She never arrived. Her body was found later that evening — the discovery wou...

In this episode of Caledonian Crime, Tay Munroe covers the disappearance of Arlene Fraser — a case that has never fully closed, and a family that has never stopped searching for answers. On the morning of Tuesday 28 April 1998, 33-year-old Arlene Fraser stood at the door of her bungalow in New Elgin in her dressing gown and waved her two young children off to school. A neighbour saw her checking t...

This week, Tay Munroe tells the story of Allan Bryant Jr — a fun-loving young man from Glenrothes in Fife who vanished on a night out in November 2013, and has never been found. Allan was 23, weeks from his 24th birthday. He lived with his mum, dad and two sisters. His father remembers a son so polite he’d stop to say hello to an elderly stranger walking their dog. On the night of 2 November 2013,...

At five o'clock in the morning on the 13th of February 1692, soldiers who had been sheltered, fed and entertained by the MacDonalds of Glencoe for twelve days rose in the dark and began killing their hosts. Around 38 men died, including the elderly chief MacIain — shot rising from his bed — and an estimated 40 more women and children perished fleeing into a blizzard. In this episode, Tay strips th...

Boarhills, June 1991 — a tiny hamlet in the East Neuk of Fife, just along the coast from St Andrews, and only a few miles from where this episode was recorded. Sandy Drummond, 33, a former Black Watch soldier with no enemies, was found face down on a farm track yards from his door — no wounds, no struggle, no blood. Everyone assumed natural causes. The post mortem revealed a strangulation so contr...

Thea June Wilson of Greenock lived for nineteen days. She was healthy, thriving, and — in her grandmother's word to the High Court — perfect. On 14 July 2023, her mother, Nicole Blain, killed her, then spent nearly three years blaming another young child while posting tributes online. This spring, a jury in Glasgow convicted Blain of murder; on 28 May 2026, Lord Scott sentenced her to life with a...

In April 2005, 27-year-old Emma Caldwell vanished from Glasgow, days after telling her mother she wanted to go to rehab and come home. Five weeks later her body was found in remote woodland forty miles away. Within weeks, police interviewed the man who would eventually be convicted of her murder — and then let him walk free for nineteen years. In this fully updated episode, Tay takes you through t...

This episode covers organised crime, drug dealing, gang violence, and the murder of six people including an 18-month-old child in an arson attack. It also contains discussion of a major miscarriage of justice. Listener discretion is advised. All facts in this script are drawn from the following verified sources: Primary/Legal Sources • Court of Criminal Appeal, Edinburgh — judgment quashing convic...

Sawney Bean: Scotland’s Cannibal King — Monster or Myth? A sea cave on the Ayrshire coast. A clan of 45, born of incest and raised on human flesh. A thousand victims over 25 years. The legend of Alexander “Sawney” Bean is Scotland’s darkest tale — but did any of it actually happen? In this episode, Tay Munroe ventures into Bennane Cave to separate folklore from fact: the missing records, the suspi...

Key sources: The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft — University of Edinburgh (witches.hca.ed.ac.uk) Professor Julian Goodare — Emeritus Professor, University of Edinburgh Dr Louise Yeoman — BBC Scotland / National Records of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon’s apology speech, International Women’s Day, 8 March 2022 Daemonologie by King James VI, 1597 Newes from Scotland, anonymous pamphlet, 1591 Ashes and Ston...

A 104 mile ride. A shallow grave. Six years of silence. This episode deals with the death of a real individual and the profound impact on his family. All facts are verified against Police Scotland statements, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service sentencing records, BBC Scotland reporting, and the Press and Journal. Where family members are quoted or paraphrased, all material is drawn from on...

This episode covers the murder of 16 children and their teacher in graphic detail, including discussion of the predator’s background and systemic failures. Listener discretion is advised. We tell this story with the deepest respect for the victims and survivors. All facts in this script are drawn from the following verified sources: Primary Sources ​ The Cullen Report (1996) — Public Inquiry into...

He quoted the Bible. He danced with strangers. And then he killed them. Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom was the beating heart of the city in the late 1960s — and somewhere in its crowds moved a man Scotland has never stopped hunting. This podcast explores the chilling, unsolved case of Bible John, the murders that gripped a nation, and the question that haunts investigators to this day: who was he?...

Edinburgh, 1828. In the fog-soaked alleyways of the city’s West Port, two Irish labourers discovered something chilling: in a city desperate for scientific progress, a fresh human body was worth a fortune. William Burke and William Hare lured at least sixteen of Edinburgh’s most vulnerable souls to their lodging house, smothering them without trace before delivering the corpses to the celebrated a...